Man’s mind is well disposed as regards what is near him, viz. his neighbor, first, as to the will to do good; and to this belongs goodness. Secondly, as to the execution of well-doing; and to this belongs benignity, for the benign are those in whom the salutary flame (bonus ignis) of love has enkindled the desire to be kind to their neighbor.  Thirdly, as to his suffering with equanimity the evils his neighbor inflicts on him.  To this belongs meekness, which curbs anger.  Fourthly, in the point of our refraining from doing harm to our neighbor not only through anger, but also through fraud or deceit.  To this pertains faith, if we take it as denoting fidelity.  But if we take it for the faith whereby we believe in God, then man is directed thereby to that which is above him, so that he subject his intellect and, consequently, all that is his, to God.

Man is well disposed in respect of that which is below him, as regards external action, by modesty, whereby we observe the mode in all our words and deeds:  as regards internal desires, by continency and chastity: whether these two differ because chastity withdraws man from unlawful desires, continency also from lawful desires:  or because the continent man is subject to concupiscence, but is not led away; whereas the chaste man is neither subject to, nor led away from them.

Reply Obj. 1:  Sanctification is effected by all the virtues, by which also sins are taken away.  Consequently fruit is mentioned there in the singular, on account of its being generically one, though divided into many species which are spoken of as so many fruits.

Reply Obj. 2:  The hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold fruits do not differ as various species of virtuous acts, but as various degrees of perfection, even in the same virtue.  Thus continency of the married state is said to be signified by the thirtyfold fruit; the continency of widowhood, by the sixtyfold; and virginal continency, by the hundredfold fruit.  There are, moreover, other ways in which holy men distinguish three evangelical fruits according to the three degrees of virtue:  and they speak of three degrees, because the perfection of anything is considered with respect to its beginning, its middle, and its end.

Reply Obj. 3:  The fact of not being disturbed by painful things is something to delight in.  And as to faith, if we consider it as the foundation, it has the aspect of being ultimate and delightful, in as much as it contains certainty:  hence a gloss expounds thus:  “Faith, which is certainly about the unseen.”